A
new documentary airing on the UK’s Channel 4 explores three mature
British women who sell sex. How does their job affect their lives, and
what compels men to pay for sex with seniors?

They don’t call it “the oldest profession” for nothing.

My Granny the Escort, a new documentary that aired this
week on Channel 4 in the UK, aims to demystify “mature escorts”—women
over the age of 60 who choose to have sex for money. Directed and
narrated by Charlie Russell, the film opens with a chirpy,
Kiessling-esque tune, followed by a vague title card that reads
“Somewhere in England.” We’re then transported inside a cozy suburban
home. A curvy woman, dressed entirely in black, gingerly ambles down the
stairs, nearly tripping over the bottom step. This is Beverley, 64. She
is a grandmother and a prostitute who operates out of her humble abode.
Charlie’s scheduled interview, however, is suddenly interrupted by the
arrival of a client 20 years her junior.

“I’d come to find out about Beverley’s life as a ‘mature escort,’”
says Charlie, “but I found myself waiting awkwardly in her kitchen as
she had sex with a stranger above my head.” The creaking of the bed can
be heard through the floorboards and, 20 minutes later, Beverley
emerges, giggling.

Prostitution
is legal in England provided the person selling is 18 or older, and
it’s not done in public. And of the estimated 100,000 prostitutes in the
United Kingdom, a small—but formidable—percentage of them are
classified as “mature.” Over 45 minutes, Charlie’s documentary follows
three of these women and examines why a woman in her later years would
choose to be a prostitute, as well as what would compel a man his age to
pay for the sexual services of a more mature woman.

Beverley’s been an escort for 25 years, currently charging 50£ for a
half-hour and 90£ for the full hour. She began because, she says, “my
ex-husband left me penniless. He was a gambler, unfortunately, so we
literally had nothing. We were living on bread and jam.” When her
husband left she was forced to raise the kids on her own and one day,
she saw an advert in the paper that said “Escorts Wanted.” She rang them
up, expecting to be compensated for, perhaps, accompanying a gentleman
to lunch. When the man arrived, he told her they were going to do “the
rounds,” and by the end of the day, she’d had sex with eight different
men.

“When I got home, my son ran me a bath and that’s when I got
upset because I thought, ‘Oh, my God, what have I done?’” says Beverley.
“But then I looked at the money and thought, ‘Well, at least we’re
going to eat tonight.’ Once I got over the first day I was fine. I just
worked, and worked, and worked. It was just a job at the end of the
day.”

“Without their clothes on, they’re usually the vulnerable ones.”

When
Charlie asks if it’s dangerous for Beverley to have strangers coming in
and out of her home with no security present, she says, “It is… but
without their clothes on, they’re usually the vulnerable ones.”

Sophie,
a masked woman in her 60s, is the next subject. She’s been working as a
prostitute since her late 50s, and lives in the countryside, where it’s
easier for her to service her clientele—which include 20-year-old boys,
30-year-old Swedish businessmen, and 80-year-olds—without causing too
much fuss. According to the film, she services 100 men a month and works
six days a week.

“I’ve never turned anybody away,” she says. “There’s always something to like about people.”

Before
her days as a prostitute, the Liverpudlian used to work six-and-a-half
days a week at an office and “never really had time” for her own private
life. Her husband left her after two years, and she was forced to bring
up the children on her own. She says she “didn’t really date” during
this period “because I didn’t really feel it was right for [the kids] to
have many people in their lives coming or going.” On her youngest son’s
18th birthday, she realized that she wanted her life back.

“I said to him, ‘Happy Birthday! My parental responsibility has
endeth,’” she says. These days, she’s lost contact with her children,
and keeps all of the relics of her “old life” in a suitcase. “That life
doesn’t really happen anymore,” she says, zipping up its contents. “I
just moved on and created another one.”

Then, we meet the film’s
most curious subject: Sheila Vogel-Coupe. At 85 years young, Sheila has
been labeled the oldest prostitute in the UK, and as such, charges
upwards of 250£ an hour. She looks like your typical granny—gray hair,
wrinkles, dentures—and slowly stumbles about her apartment in a magenta
tracksuit. “This is my office,” she says, smiling and pointing to the
bed.

“Men, especially young men… they see something about me which is a
nice feeling,” says Sheila. “Often, men call me up and they say, ‘Will
you please go on talking because you’re turning me on and I have such a
wank when I’m talking to you.’” She laughs. “I know I’m very, very sexy.”

Sheila Vogel-Coupe. Courtesy of Channel 4. (channel4.com)

Sheila’s
been escorting for the past four years, ever since her second husband
passed away. But she hasn’t left her flat in the eight weeks since she
underwent an operation to have 33 cm of intestines removed. She stumbles
over to the bathroom and points to the bathtub. “Sometimes, they come
in here, I plop them in the bath, and that’s what they call ‘waters
ports’—when I stand on top of them and let them have the golden flow.”
She’s determined to recover from her injury and get back to full health
so she can continue to service clients in luxurious London hotels. Prior
to her operation, she saw approximately 10 clients a week, and despite
being out of commission, has several men chasing her via text, begging
for her company. “It’ll only take 5, please!” reads one desperate text.

Three years ago, Sheila’s life was turned upside down. She was headed
to a local hotel for a job, when all of a sudden the tabloid News of the World
caught her, and ran her picture on the cover with the headline, “GUM
AND GET IT.” The rag targeted her because her granddaughter, Katie
Waissel, was a contestant on the reality singing competition series The X Factor.
Sheila has three daughters, three grandchildren, and two
great-grandchildren, and none of them knew about her career change until
the tabloid leak.

“What happened as a result of it was you’d
think I had committed a murder,” says Sheila. “They couldn’t believe I’d
do something like that. I told them, ‘What do you think I’ve done?’”
She pauses. “Everyone thinks about things differently. I tried very hard
to patch it up, but then it got to the point where they wanted me to
promise that I’d never ever do it again. I said, ‘Tell them to stuff it
up their…’”

We also meet two disguised “punters”—or “johns”—who explain why they repeatedly enlist the services of mature escorts.

“They’re confident. They know their own bodies,” one of them says.
“It’s almost, for me, a bit perverse, like ‘Women of that age shouldn’t
be doing this.’ That’s different, isn’t it? They’re batting outside what
is kind of expected of a grown-up lady and that… that’s naughty.” He
adds, “If I compared the experience of a mature lady to that of a
younger girl, it’s a contractual interaction, but there feels more value
to it and more depth to it. And it isn’t just wham bam thank you ma’am.
A mature lady will provide you with the feelings that you’re
important—you’re the one—whilst at the same time clearly enjoying it
themselves.”

Another carries around a “punter’s bag” with him
consisting of cocoa butter, lube, tissues, an ice pack, and a towel.
“There are a lot of people who are just awkward and not very
outgoing,” he says, “and I think I fall within that broad range of
people, and I think it’s great that you can go and see a mature working
girl and she will make you, for that one hour, feel great.”

My Granny the Escort
concludes with two of the women reaching a crossroads of sorts.
Beverley, in her 25 years of escorting, has never had a boyfriend, so
she joins a dating site and is determined “to wake up with someone you
can cuddle.” As for Sheila, well, she knows her days as an escort are
probably numbered, but isn’t ready to hang up her heels just yet. She
admits to her eldest daughter, Josie—the only relative that still speaks
to her—that she can’t stand being alone. “It’s lovely to still be sexy
at my age,” she says, “but I’ve been on my own now for the last eight,
nine years, and I do get lonely. I like the companionship of a man, of a
gentleman. Whatever may come with it, okay fine, but it is the
companionship of being with somebody.”

As for the disguised
Sophie, well, she’s resolved to take Sundays off and give herself one
day a week to “keep a foot in the real world,” but has no plans of
quitting any time soon.

“I will have a boyfriend for an hour, I
will have a lover for an hour,” says Sophie. “That’s enough. No dirty
socks to wash.” She takes a long pause. “You know, what I do, some
people would classify it as ‘immoral,’ but you know? I really love it.
And why shouldn’t I be able to do what I want to do? And if people can’t
accept it, well, it’s just one of those things.”

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